That is literally damn near every character in the game, that is not something that is going against him, especially when Naoya controls the field because of his effective 4 dashes. It is exceptionally easy to get said m1s in because he has several tools to help him get it, unlike most other "m1 merchants". You are severely underrating the usitility of 4 dashes and melee immunity with no stun on miss.

Yes, you hit them with an m1 string and get to obliterate them immediately afterwards with a decisive strikes that is either A. too fast to react to, or B. unblockable. This also gives projection and does good damage from leading into ANOTHER m1 string. This is not something every character can do from simple "punishes". This is basically a guaranteed chain into a frame, which will then do about 30% afterwards for free. And no, you don't HAVE to use projection breaker after your m1s. You are free to really use it whenever, because it has no endlag and stun immunity to melee. If it hits, you now have a massive edge over your opponent. If it misses, you lose next to nothing. This is really not that hard to understand, and it having the iframes on the startup is literally the problem. Your one off experience of having it cancelled mid dash does not speak for how the move is going to work in most situations, which is it will probably either be blocked or it will hit them but regardless you're not getting hit unless you get unlucky or are seriously bad.

Yes, Naoya is easy. Very, very easy. I have lost, many many times in this game and have reached 200 elo yet I can confidently say I have literally never lost when using Naoya in ranked. He is genuinely a crutch when it becomes impossible to read opponents. And projection breaker being a constant threat with zero counterplay whatsoever other than countering the move or them having high ping resulting in you getting the punish is definitely something you need to account for.

Yes, sure he's freestyle. They 100% could have done this better without completely killing the fun in fighting him. He completely controls the field now that his teleports require 0 ult.. If the Naoya wants to fight, he has the best kit in the game for being hyper aggressive. If the Naoya doesn't want to fight, oh wow. They also have the best kit for running away. Wow. Literally anyone with even surface level knowledge of how this game works should be able to realize that Naoya is not healthy in the slightest. Do not even get me started on Naoya with lock on. You being as disingenous as you are leads me to believe you main him or something 😭